Apr 6, 2018 08:09 PM
(This post was last modified: Apr 6, 2018 08:15 PM by Yazata.)
On the most recent Falcon 9 supply launch which just arrived at the space station. (As if SpaceX's phallic rockets weren't sexy enough. Now they are delivering sperm!)
There's method to NASA's madness. They want to observe the sperm fertilizing eggs in weightlessness (in vitro). The hypothesis is that weightlessness might make the sperm more motile, hence increasing their fertility.
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/224562...tation.htm
I'm kind of skeptical, since sperm are on the scale of microorganisms, and weight is a very minor factor to organisms that small. The properties of the water they have to move through is a much bigger deal to them. (They are jostled around by Brownian motion, they have to push through the viscosity of the water, etc.)
Maybe the idea is that weightlessness will alter the properties of water and will make it easier for small microorganisms to move through. You would think that they already tested that.
This sounds like some kind of high-school science experiment to me.
There's method to NASA's madness. They want to observe the sperm fertilizing eggs in weightlessness (in vitro). The hypothesis is that weightlessness might make the sperm more motile, hence increasing their fertility.
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/224562...tation.htm
I'm kind of skeptical, since sperm are on the scale of microorganisms, and weight is a very minor factor to organisms that small. The properties of the water they have to move through is a much bigger deal to them. (They are jostled around by Brownian motion, they have to push through the viscosity of the water, etc.)
Maybe the idea is that weightlessness will alter the properties of water and will make it easier for small microorganisms to move through. You would think that they already tested that.
This sounds like some kind of high-school science experiment to me.